Friday, December 16, 2011

The Saga of the Painted Soldier - Nutcracker

A quick recap... Last year, our town's small businesses featured differently painted soldiers. Some businesses decorated their soldier to reflect their business (aka - a beauty salon had a soldier with a hairdryer, the pizza place had a soldier dressed as a pizza cook, etc.). This year, the town offered to sell the blank soldiers to anyone who wanted one to display at their homes. I wanted one!

My darling Ashley brought me home a blank! It took up a lot of room in her car.

I came up with a few themes and offered a poll on this blog. The winner was for this skier. Unfortunately, even the best laid plans don't work out.
There were a few little issues with the skier that didn't work out.
The cut out of the soldier didn't match up with what I wanted for the skier. The cut-out had a definite square hat, rather than a rounded head. I thought I could overcome this with some clever painting and shadowing, but I soon realized that the legs on the cut-out were not in proportion to the torso.
Also, the color scheme on the skier didn't work for me as I realized that too much white would get lost in the snow, rather than standing out and being noticed. (Like any soldier at attention deserves!)

A composite of different soldiers that I put together for a Super Soldier

So, I came up with Plan B. This time, I found a square hat soldier, added some more color and decided to not worry about the tiny legs.

Here is my soldier while being painted inside. You can't tell from the photo, but the gold buttons are actually painted wooden disks, so they stand 1/4 inch above the soldier for some added depth. I added some darkness to his hair, so it wasn't all white (reminds me of my father) and placed him outside.

When Jon saw him, he suggested getting another blank and painting the back side of the soldier, so people passing our hill would see him coming AND going! So, I did.